Articles tagged with: photos

Protesters who have taken over Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall are continuing a week-long occupation, settled into their tent city for a ninth day on Wednesday with no sign that they plan to end the demonstration against government, big banks and corporate America.

Three meals a day are served at a makeshift cafeteria, first aid is provided at a medical booth, and a “media center” has sprung up — providing access to the web for protesters. 

With the economy and his 2012 reelection bid on his mind, President Barack Obama arrived at San Francisco International Airport on board Air Force One. He was whisked away to Facebook’s Palo Alto campus for an unprecedented hour-long town hall meeting hosted by the company’s CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and streamed online to Facebook users, and then went to San Francisco to attend two fundraising events for Democrats.

Here are snapshots of his stops in the Bay Area.

San Francisco International Airport’s Terminal 2 is, like many other airport terminals built in recent years, an aesthetic wonder. High ceilings, vast open spaces, ample natural lighting, and artwork combine to create a welcoming environment for travelers — a far cry from the gloomy passenger terminals of old.

But what really sets this terminal, reopening to passengers Thursday after a $383 million renovation project, apart from others is the attention to details — like power outlets and taps to fill water bottles — that the modern traveler will appreciate.

Demolition crews took the long Thanksgiving weekend off, but work on bulldozing the condemned Transbay Terminal is moving rapidly after the destruction of the building’s elevated bus ramps and the second-level train shed.

Work to demolish the terminal halls — including the waiting rooms and iconic building facade facing Mission Street — is next.

The hundreds of thousands of fans who lined San Francisco streets at packed Civic Center Plaza Wednesday to cheer on the World Series Champion Giants baseball team were relatively well-behaved, the San Francisco Police Department said.

No major incidents evolved from the ticker-tape parade, but several people were taken away in ambulances throughout the event, including a teenager who fell from a Market Street light pole after trying to snag a Giants flag attached to a light post.

SAN FRANCISCO – Hundreds of thousands of San Francisco Giants fans crowded a downtown parade route Wednesday to honor the 2010 World Series championship baseball team in an old-fashioned ticker-tape parade. Many were still partying in the Civic Center area well into the early evening, celebrating the team’s first series crown since moving to the city in 1958.

SAN FRANCISCO — Celebrations broke out citywide in San Francisco and many other Bay Area cities Saturday night after the Giants clinched the National League pennant, sending the team to a World Series match-up against the Texas Rangers beginning at AT&T Park this Wednesday.

In San Francisco’s Mission District, drivers of cars and MUNI buses honked horns and fans streamed out of bars and lounges to parade on street corners after Giants closer Brian Wilson struck out Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard to finish a 3-2 win.

SAN FRANCISCO – An apartment building that was destroyed in a Wednesday morning four-alarm fire will most likely be demolished this week, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.

The blaze, reported to the fire department just after 5 a.m., quickly gutted the four-story building at 824 Hyde St. displacing 75 residents and injuring a handful of others escaping the flames, the fire department reported.

SAN FRANCISCO — The United States Navy’s Blue Angels flight team rattled windows and frazzled nerves throughout the Bay Area Thursday afternoon when it took to the skies for Fleet Week practice flights.

The iconic blue and gold F/A-18 jets could be heard from every part of the city and throughout much of the Bay Area.

SHANGHAI – Four days in Shanghai barely scratched the surface of what’s possible in this giant Chinese metropolis — a sister city to San Francisco for the past 30 years and accessible via a direct 14-hour international flight from SFO.

Shanghai is the largest city proper in the world by population, topping in at almost 14 million people. As a metropolitan area, it ranks as the tenth largest — home to 16 million people.